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Standard Pitch or Concert Pitch<

What is Standard Pitch or Concert Pitch and why do we need it?Standard Pitch is a universal frequency or note that allinstruments are set to. Today’s standard pitch is A440 orC523.3 and this concert pitch enables musicians to play instrumentstogether in harmony. A form of standard pitch has been around ever since two individuals wished to play two instruments together or sing to an instrument. A tuning fork is normally used to set the pitch. However, in the past, pitch pipes have been used, and today electronic tuning forks are also used, but the most common is the tuning fork. The tuning fork was invented by John Shore in 1711 and it had a pitch of A423.5. He was the sergeant trumpeter to the Court and also lutenist in the Chapel Royal.

In May 1938 an international conference was set up to look at a universal pitch. The conference studded the matter at great length, quite a few where in favour of a pitch of A439 tep: 68 F. The mathematician Sir James Swinburne put the case for A440 on the grounds it rounded numbers up and made calculation in the scale simple. The conference finished with no full agreement on pitch only that each country should set up subcommittee to look at the problem. The UK and US agreed on A440 tep: 20 C The UK, ISP committee was held at the BBC and not all were in favour of A440 In 1939 some wanted the Philharmonic pitch of 1890. The BSI committee passed a resolution for a pitch of A440 at 68F. In December 1939 the BSI published a book called "British Standard Concert Pitch"

Of course, once you have your "A" or "C" set to a pitch, the rest of the instrument will have to be tuned. A scale is set in the middle and this scale also determines the pitch of all the twelve notes in the octave. The most common system used to day is known as equal temperament. This sets the pitches of the twelve notes so that the player can play the instrument in all keys by dividing the roughness equally among the twelve notes. The roughness is called the "wolf." This term may have come about because if the "wolf" is not set right the instrument will be howling out of tune.

Like standard pitch A440, equal temperament is not the onlytuning scale that has been used. Ptolemy started using justintonation in 136 AD. Meantone tuning was perfected by Salinas in 1577 AD. Equal temperament was proposed by Aristoxenus, a pupil ofAristotle, and had been in use in China for some centuries before.It would seem that equal temperament was used in North Germany asearly as 1690. In 1842 the organ of St. Nicholas, inNewcastle-upon-Tyne, was tuned to equal temperament, and this isbelieved to be the first organ to be tuned in this way in Englandfor a concert. Willis the organ builder did not use equaltemperament until 1854. However, in 1846 Walter Broadwood directed Mr. Hipkins the head piano tuner at the company to instruct theirtuners in the use of equal temperament. Mr. Hipkins used two tuningforks, one for meantone at A433.5 and one for equal temperament atA436. Meantone was the most common scale used at that time. See Ed Foote for more information on the use of meantone on today's pianos.

Musicians are not the only people to work with pitch. In 583 BC, a Greek philosopher called Pythagorus was making use of themonochord. This device is simply a soundbox with a single stringstretched over a movable bridge, the position of which can bedetermined by a scale marked on the soundbox. This was more of a scientific instrument than a musical one. Before this time, the Egyptians and Greeks made use of the monochord. For 5000 years, it was used to make intricate mathematical calculations. The ratio of intervals and many other facts that make up the fundamentals of acoustic science were discovered using the monochord. Pythagorusused a pitch of 256Hz on his monochord. The study of mathematics was known as philosophy in the time of Plato.

Modern science began to measure pitch accuracy in cps or cyclesper second around 1834 when a group of distinguished German physicists using a mechanical stroboscopic device found that the pitch of the tuning fork that they were testing was at A440 cps. It was only later that the frequency was expressed in Hz.

In the fifteenth century Arnold Schlick of Heidelberg, gave us the pitch of the time as being A.502. An Organ in Hepusdat dated 1351 with a pitch of A505 Scholars who have studied historical instruments claim that thepitch of the note "A" in the seventeenth century may have variedfrom 373.7 Hz to 402.9 Hz. The following is an incomplete list of pitch standards from various sources.

1640

Vienna Franciscan Organ A457.6

1663

Bernards Schmidt's Orgain in Duham, England A474

1699

Paris Opera A404

1711

John Shore's tuning fork, a pitch of A423.5 He
invented the tuning fork, one of which still exists today.

1780

Stines, for Mozart, A421

1780

Organ builder Schulz A421.3

1714

Strasbourg Cathedral organ A391

1722

Dresden's chief Roman Catholic church organ
A415

1759

Trinity College Cambridge organ A309

1762

Stringed instruments at Hamburg A405

1772

Gottfried Silbermann built the organ in the main
Roman Catholic church in Dresden, and it had a pitch of A 415 at
the time.

1780

Organ builder Schulz A421.3

1780

Stein's tuning fork A422.6

1751

Handel's own fork A422.5

1800

Broadwood's C fork, 505.7, which is about half a
semitone lower than that of today

1811

Paris Grand Opera A 427

1812

Paris Conservatoire A440, as modern pitch

1813

George Smart adopted for the Philharmonic Society
the pitch of A423.3.

1820

Westminster Abbey organ and possibly Paris Comic
Opera used a pitch of A422.5.

1823

In Veienna pitch was A437 and it 1834 A 440

1828

Philharmonic Society A 440

1834

Vienna Opera A 436.5

1835

Wolfels piano maker A443

1836

Pleyel's Pianos A446

1846

Philharmonic pitch was A452.5 (very high) which
lasted till 1854

1846

Mr Hipkins piano tuner (Meantone) A433.5 (Equal)
A436.0

1849

Broadwood's medium pitch was A445.9 which lasted
till 1854

1858

New Philharmonic pitch C522

1859

The French government set up a commission for a standard pitch. which was A435 the fork temperature was15 degrees centigrade.

1860

Cramer's piano makers of London A448.4

1862

Dresden Opera A 440

1871

Covent Garden Opera House A 440

1877

Collard's piano maker standard pitch was A
449.9

1877

St. Paul Cathedral organ A446.6

1877

Chappell Pianos A455.9

1877

Mr Hipkins piano tuner A448.8

1878

Her Majesty's Organ A436.1

1878

Vienna Opera A447

1879

Covent Garden Opera A450

1879

Erard's factory fork 455.3

1879

Steinway of England A 454.

1879

British Army regulation pitch for woodwinds
A451.9

1880

Brinsmead, Broadwood, and Erard apparently used a
pitch of A455.3

1880

Steinway may have been using a pitch of A436.
According to Steinway of New York, 1880 is right around the time
they switched from three piece rims to the continuous rim that is
used today. So it is unlikely the pitch was any higher before 1880,
yet Steinway of London had a fork A454.7.

1885

In Vienna a pitch of A435.4 was adopted at a
temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit for A.

1885

At an international exhibition of inventions and
music in London a pitch of A452 was adopted.

1896

Philharmonic pitch A439, giving C522

1925

On the 11th of June the American music industry
adopted A440.

1936

American Standards Association adopted A440. yet; New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, use 442 Hz

1939

At an international conference A440 was
adopted.

The pitch of A440 has remained the standard since 1939. Pitches
have risen a little, particularly in Eastern European countries,
which often wish pianos to be tuned to A 444 or even a bit above.
Some concert halls in the UK and European countries have two pianos
on site, one tuned to A440 and one tuned to A 444. This is to keep
the pianos stable, as constantly raising and lowering the pitch is
not good for the piano; it makes it hard for the piano tuner to
make the tuning stable.

Here is a full list of the theoretical frequencies for all the
notes on a piano tuned to A440: theoretical
frequencies.